• list names of items (jumping to conclusion, a "leap of faith")

• list characteristics ("nature of…")

Distribute "99 Names" Note: these "names" are really characteristics or functions of God. As such, they are descriptive of the nature of God. The name "God" (or any other name) does not explain what God/UR is like.

At conclusion of exercise: I will reveal what is inside the boxes (honestly or not): (paper clips, rock, pencil, eraser, cotton batting, lipstick, sponge, smaller box w/playing cards in it)

Do the students believe what I tell them? Why? Because I am an authority? Why trust an authority? How do you know they know what they are talking about? "What makes you think I know what the mystery is any more than you do? What makes you think your priest or minister knows more? Why take the word of some faith tradition or teaching?"

• "Ultimate" refers to first and last things ("Alpha & Omega") (eternal)

• The essence, core or underlying basis of everything (origin, source, creator)

• That upon which everything else depends but which, itself, is non-dependent (self-existent)

• UR is not a physical object within the cosmos but it pervades the entire cosmos and all things contained therein (non-physical/spiritual). It is abstract, not concrete.

• It is hidden beneath the surface of things. Things can be known directly by the senses but Ultimate Reality, the essential nature of those things, cannot be known empirically; it is only intuited (intuition).

• Its qualities or characteristics are mysterious (same root word as "mystic"), invisible, infinite, ineffable (cannot be spoken of directly - words are designed to address physical, empirical reality)

• UR is referred to indirectly through metaphor, myth and symbols used to hint at its nature (UR is "like", the "kingdom of God is like...")

• It may be understood as transcendent (above & beyond this world) and/or immanent (within this world)

• Ultimate Reality may be understood to be of a personal or impersonal nature (theistic or non-theistic beliefs)

• "Theism", "Atheism", "Agnosticism", "Non-theistic" pertain to beliefs about the nature of Ultimate Reality, not to the actual nature of It (although we are usually convinced that our belief is actually reflective of that Reality to which it alludes).

• Discuss personification and anthropomorphism ("man-shaped"): God imaged in the form of man. The Bible says man is made in the form (image) of God (the imagination of God) not the other way around.

• Xenophanes: "if oxen and horses could speak and draw they would tell us that the gods are oxen and horses"

• individually fill out God continuum sheets

• visual demonstration: survey of class diversity

Optional/alternative exercise: "Look out the window and write down what you see" (each student writes independently, then shares around the room. Each will list different things or the same but in a different order. No one will take note of identical things.)

• One world, many attributes - one God, many attributes, many perspectives.

• No one religion or person perceives them all but they are all there

Distribute: What the religions believe…

• Spokes on a wheel

• Diagram: Circle of religions seeing different sides of UR

• Jigsaw puzzle

• Tell story: The blind men and the elephant

• Different gods or just different names? (Rumi story: grapes) "A rose by any other name…"

• It is a matter of perspective:

• "half empty" or "half full"? - (draw image). Both answers are equally valid but they are human value judgments - more a reflection of us than of Ultimate Reality Itself.

• Different religions are like each of us looking at the same thing but wearing different colored glasses, each claiming the color is part of what we are looking at rather than realizing it is part of what is doing the looking. It is a mistake to imagine that the color belongs to UR rather than to us.

• UR may be like a mirror: the mirror retains its same nature although what it reflects is different for each of us.

• Mountain of God: different directions to get to same place (travel directions)

• In math: different ways to arrive at the same answer (2+2, 2X2, 5-1, 1+3… = 4)

• As difficult as it may be for a monotheist to comprehend how anyone could believe in many gods, a polytheist would not be able to understand how monotheists could reject the notion of many gods. Many people, why not many gods? A reasonable assumption.

• A greater mystery: how ever did humanity move from polytheistic to monotheistic belief?

• Most polytheistic beliefs do hold that there is one high god over all the others (e.g., Zeus, African tribal beliefs). The high god is just too transcendent and distant. The people interact more with the lesser gods and so they are the ones that are given more attention.

• One God with many attributes (Monotheism) or many gods each with a different attribute (polytheism)? Polytheism sees each god as a specialist (e.g., creator, preserver, thunder god, war god…), each representing a certain attribute (like patron saints). Monotheism simply lumps all those attributes onto one God.